


the truth is the stars are falling, ma

by princessoftheworlds



Series: to build a home [2]
Category: Torchwood
Genre: Jack Feels, M/M, Mother-Son Relationship, Pre-Episode: s02e06 Reset, Season/Series 02
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-03
Updated: 2020-12-03
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:54:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27861893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/princessoftheworlds/pseuds/princessoftheworlds
Summary: Torchwood deals with their unexpected guest, and Karolina wakes up somewhere she doesn't recognize with someone she doesn't recognize.
Relationships: Jack & Jack's Mother, Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones
Series: to build a home [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2028292
Comments: 23
Kudos: 70





	the truth is the stars are falling, ma

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Kai for editing this! There will be more of this now that it's a series, just in a few weeks after my finals.

“Our surprise guest is in the infirmary now,” Owen tells the team as they gather in the boardroom. “She’s in good health, but her body’s exhausted from the trip through the Rift. I’ve set her up on an IV drip. Some rest, a shower, and some proper food, and she’ll be good to go.”

“Have you tested anything else yet?” Jack asks, brow furrowed in concern, and Owen shakes his head.

“No. Just took some basic scans and was considering whether I needed to run her bloodwork.”

“Oh,” says Jack, and settles back against his chair, arms crossed over his chest. He wears a slight frown, which Ianto is busy trying to decipher when he feels a light tap on his elbow.

_ Who is she?  _ Gwen mouths to him, and Ianto shakes his head, trying to convey that he doesn’t know. He realizes that the rest of the team - minus Jack - is watching him expectantly.

_ Ask him,  _ Owen mouths, pointing to Jack frantically. Ianto sighs.

“Who is she, Jack?” he asks, placing a gentle hand on his.

Jack glances up, surprised to be referred to. “Who is who?” It seems like he didn’t hear Ianto at all.

Owen rolls his eyes, ducking his head away, and Ianto hesitates. Gwen picks up the duty. “Who is our guest, Jack?” she repeats. “The way you talked to her… you seemed to know her.”

Now Tosh hesitantly chimes in, asking, “The language you spoke to her in… was that Galactic Standard?”

He whips his head up to gaze at her before nodding slowly. “Yeah,” he says finally. “Yeah, it was.” He almost expects her to ask another question, but when Tosh smiles in understanding, his shoulders slump down. Eventually: “Her name is Karolina Thane… and she’s my mother.”

The news hits the boardroom like a bombshell, just as Jack expected. Tosh’s eyes go wide, and Gwen’s mouth drops open. Owen pales a bit, Jack briefly recalls the doctor’s own difficult relationship with his mother. It’s almost too painful to look towards Ianto to see how the Welshman reacts, but luckily, Jack doesn’t have to. He feels Ianto’s hand slowly trailing down his own until their fingers link together, right there on the table. 

Christ, Jack adores Ianto Jones. With all his heart. In fact, given time, he thinks he could even love him, if he’s not half-way there already.

“So,” Gwen finally attempts. “Does that make your name Jack Thane? Because we always knew that Jack Harkness was not your real name.”

Not that he’d ever denied that, thinks Jack with faint amusement. 

“Javic Thane,” he tells Gwen. “My name is Javic Thane. Javic Piotr Thane. I’m from the Boeshane Peninsula in the fifty-first century.” 

They all take a moment to process that, even Jack. He hasn’t said his true name - his birth name - out loud in years, let alone his true identity as a Boeshane boy. The closest he got was telling Martha and the Doctor.

Yet a quick glance at Ianto confirms that the other man is piecing everything together - the throwaway comments, the stories, the “fifty-first century pheremones.” Ianto’s brow furrows together, and Jack’s heart twitches painfully under Ianto’s expression smooths back out. He gives Jack a faint, reassuring smile. 

“But your mum,” Owen begins, eyes narrowed as he focuses on Jack. “How did she end up here? How did she fall through the Rift?”

Jack shrugs. “It’s the Rift; it doesn’t obey laws of predictability.” He swallows down the rising lump in his throat as he recalls that tragic day when he was thirteen. “When I was a kid, something… happened that split my family apart. I left the house one day on an errand that Mom sent me on, but when I came back, she was gone. It was like she’d just run out of the house in the middle of cooking.” His voice cracks as he continues, and Ianto’s grip around his hand tightens. “We formed a search party and looked up and down the beach and around the colony for her, but we never found her.”

Tosh looks contemplative. “We’ve seen the Rift pop up and open across space and time,” she reasons. “It wouldn’t be so impossible for it to have taken your mother as well.”

The team falls into silence, no one really sure how to proceed or what to say, until Ianto finally asks, “So what do you want us to call you?” His eyes are wide and searching, but Jack knows that despite the hunger in his expression, Ianto will respect Jack’s secrets. 

“Just call me Jack,” Jack says after a brief pause. “Captain Jack Harkness. That’s really who I am now.” He grins that familiar charming grin that Ianto returns, squeezing Jack’s hand. “Now l think I should go see my mother.”

As he strides out of the boardroom, Tosh hurries over to catch him. “Jack,” she says hurriedly. “I could understand your conversation with your mum, and I’m so sorry I brought it up.”

“Relax, Tosh,” Jack says amusedly. “I remembered as soon as you brought up Galactic Standard.” A beat. “And I don’t blame you for bringing it up.” He grins wearily. “I certainly don’t tell you guys enough to expect you to trust me as much as you do. I think I owed this to you.” He presses a quick kiss to her cheek. “Thank you for respecting my trust, Tosh.”

* * *

Karolina Thane comes to lying on a bed, a sheet dragged up to her shoulders, making her aware that she’s been stripped and redressed in clothes that feel oddly rougher and heavier, in a strange room with  _ old  _ walls that she thinks may be brick and even older, odder pipes. There is a primitive stand connected to a needle in her arm, which she immediately pulls out, wincing.

“ _ I would leave that in, _ ” advises an unfamiliar voice with a familiar Boeshane accent. It comes from a tall, broad-shouldered man standing in the doorway of this strange room. He has brilliant blue eyes like the Boeshane ocean, a strong, square jaw, and sharp cheekbones. He wears old-fashioned clothing - a blue shirt tucked into trousers attached to, what Karolina is quite sure are… braces?

“ _ Dad? _ ” Karolina asks, slipping back into the common tongue of her childhood world, but the man shakes his head with an apologetic shrug.

“ _ I’m sorry, Karolina, _ ” he says in the language of Boeshane. “ _ I’m not your father. _ ” He hesitates briefly: “ _ We met before. My team and I helped you. Do you remember? _ ”

Karolina glances around again in shock, eyeing the unfamiliar, primitive equipment, with its constant beeping and lights. She drops the needle to the rough ground, and translucent liquid begins to flood into small puddles. Immediately, the man rushes forward and kneels to grab the needle before coiling it and the tube it’s connected to on the stand.

“ _ Where am I? _ ” she asks, her panic rising, feeling as if a Boeshane sandstorm is raging in her chest. “ _ Who are you? This isn’t Boeshane. _ ”

“ _ This is Torchwood, _ ” the man begins. “ _ In the twenty-first century, 2008 specifically. _ ” There are sad shadows in his eyes, Karolina notices, but his smile is kind. “ _ My name is Jack. My team and I helped you. Do you remember? _ ”

But she’s busy remembering something else. Tumbling through darkness that felt as turbulent as the ocean right next to her home. She’d been cooking before she’d briefly run out to her garden for more vegetables. And then… the world swept up around her.

_ Oh! _ She’s clearly no longer in Boeshane. She’d left the stove on. She’d sent out Javic to the market…

“ _ Javic! _ ” she gasps, straightening up in realization. “ _ Javic, my son! I left him behind. I must get back to him. We don’t leave each other’s sight anymore, not since… _ ” She shudders and doesn’t complete her statement.

__ When she glances up, the man - Jack - is smiling sadly, tears beginning to trickle down his face.

_ “I’m in 2008, you said? _ ” she asks. “ _ How is that possible? And how do you know me? How are you speaking in the Boeshane tongue? _ ”

“ _ Look at me, _ ” Jack says, and Karolina narrows her eyes at him, wondering what he wants, what she’s supposed to be looking for. He has the expected Boeshane coloring and features. “ _ No. I mean it. Look at me, Mom. _ ”

Her breath catches at his final word. Then she looks at him, really  _ looks  _ at him, and she sees it. Sees those eyes that reflect back at her every morning. Sees Franklin in the cheekbones and jaw. Sees her father Piotr in the smile. 

It can’t be, but yet she must ask, “ _ Javic? Javic, is that you? _ ”

Jack - Javic - nods slowly, inching closer until he can take hold of her hands gently. “ _ Yes, Mom, _ ” he says eventually. “ _ Yes, it is me. _ ”

“ _ But how? _ ”

He doesn’t answer, only pulls her closer, against his solid chest, and tucks his head over hers. Javic, her oldest son, the apple of her eye, the boy she’d jokingly referred to as more temperamental than the sea when he wasn’t getting his way… he was already outgrowing her at thirteen; now, he towers over her. She breathes in that warm, familiar scent of his pheromones, the evolution of how he smelled as a baby, and marvels at the similarities to Franklin.

“I missed you, Mom,” he whispers in a language she doesn’t necessarily understand. “I missed you so much.”

Eventually, the shock fades, and the tears come quick. Karolina finds herself bawling against the soft shirt of her adult son who now looks older than her. He continues murmuring to her, voice thick with his own tears. She becomes faintly aware that the top of her head is damp, but only sobs harder, clinging to Javic.

And Javic clings back.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on tumblr [here](http://princess-of-the-worlds.tumblr.com/) or on Twitter [here](https://twitter.com/rajkumarinik). I tweet and reblog mostly Torchwood with occasionally amusing commentary on nonsense. Please come talk to me and tell me if/how much you like my fic or like ask me about it on tumblr; all my schoolwork has become remote now, and I have limited social interaction.


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